You have most likely heard about influencers before, but how familiar are you with brand ambassadors? We asked our Campaign Manager Ellie, who has a lot of experience with matching brands with suitable ambassadors, for a quick walk-through.

”Fundamentally, an influencer and a brand ambassador are very much alike. They are both chosen by a brand for their established position within a particular field and influence over a specific target audience to whom they can promote different products or services. However, there is an important difference between the two in how they work with your brand.

As opposed to an influencer, who is usually activated to publish one or a few posts in a single campaign, an ambassador is someone who represents your brand for a longer time period. They usually take part in several campaigns, often over several months or even years, to repeatedly promote your brand on their social media platforms. Their work can also extend to offline activations, such as attending events or interviews for magazines etc. 

In other words, a brand ambassador is by definition a sort of influencer, but an influencer is not per se a brand ambassador. 

Important to keep in mind is that an ambassador is in no sense a substitute for working with other influencers. They can both achieve remarkable results, but by different means, so our recommendation is to include both regular influencers and brand ambassadors in your marketing mix. But what are the specific perks of signing an ambassador? Let us give you a quick rundown!

1. Branding The most common reason for hiring an ambassador is their unique ability to strengthen your brand with the target audience. Ambassadors allow you to build a more personal relationship with their followers, who in turn will (if done right) form a positive image of your brand. To make a larger impact on your branding, using a larger influencer or celebrity might be more effective.

2. Genuinity Since you are working with an ambassador for a longer period, the whole collaboration will feel more authentic and genuine to the followers. As opposed to coming across as ”just another paid advertisement”, promotions from an ambassador will sound and feel more natural – positively affecting the target audience’ perception of the brand.

3. Exclusivity Not only will the ambassador be blocked from promoting other competitive brands during the period of your collaboration – an agreement also usually includes a written clause stating that they can’t show or speak about any competitive brand, making them exclusively attached to yours.

4. Extra visibility Since the ambassador (presumably) genuinely likes your brand, they will most likely publish things about it on top of what is contracted in your financial arrangement, giving your product or service extra visibility for free. 

If you are wondering... how to find the right ambassador for your brand, the answer is simple – research. Make sure that the person you are considering to hire is a good match with your brand, that they genuinely likes and maybe even uses your product or service on a regular basis today, that they reach your desired target audience and that they can help you reach your overall marketing objectives. A good strategy to pursue if you want to find suitable ambassadors is to run and evaluate a few influencer marketing campaigns first, and then identify the best-performing profiles from those. 

Note: A big following is not everything. If you have found a person who genuinely likes your brand and loves to speak well of it, don’t let them go – invite them to become an ambassador of yours! Nano/micro influencers can be just as good ambassadors as macro/mega-influencers or celebrities.

If you are interested in knowing more about how to initiate a brand ambassador program, feel free to reach out – we are more than happy to help.”